


Life's Little Moments

by Everdeen21



Category: Legacies (TV 2018), The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms, The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 00:15:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28537212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Everdeen21/pseuds/Everdeen21
Summary: A bunch of one-shots focusing on the relationships between Caroline, Lizzie, and Josie.
Relationships: Caroline Forbes & Josie Saltzman, Caroline Forbes & Josie Saltzman & Lizzie Saltzman, Caroline Forbes & Lizzie Saltzman, Josie Saltzman & Lizzie Saltzman
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	Life's Little Moments

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Underage Drinking
> 
> Takes place in between Legacies: 2x03 and 2x04
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Vampire Diaries, Legacies, or the Originals.

She, Josie Saltzman, was not a partier, never was nor will be a partier, or maybe she is. Honestly, she had no idea. The last drink was probably not the best idea or the five other ones before that. Definitely not a good ideas, but she has a hard time stopping herself when she lifts the sixth one to her lips. 

She suddenly feels someone grab on to her shoulders. Maya, she thinks, is her name. A small part of Josie feels guilty that she doesn't remember the person's name is hosting the party, but that little part is quickly clouded over with drunkenness. 

"Come on, Jojo, let's have some fun. My mom is going to have gone for hours! Finally, her being the sheriff comes in handy," Maya says with a wicked grin plastered across her face. 

Josie laughs at the girl's expression and finds herself being pulled by Maya onto the dance floor. 

"Let me at least put my drink down first."

"Come on, Jo, you were the one telling me that you needed time away from being at that stressful boarding school of yours, so I am making it my personal mission to make you have some fun."

A part of Josie is screaming at her telling her that she shouldn't be doing this. She should not have snuck off-campus. She should not have gone to a party, and she definitely should not be drinking. 

But Josie is so desperate. Desperate to feel anything other than rage, jealousy, and guilt, so she chooses to ignore that part of her, telling her what she shouldn't be doing. She imagines crushing it into a million pieces with her shoe. 

She is so over feeling.

So, while Maya is busy pulling her on to the dance floor, Josie grabs another cup. 

"I'm sorry, you what?" Caroline asked. 

Alaric sighed, "Listen, Josie is missing—"

"How do you lose a teenage girl? More importantly, our daughter. I specifically left you a binder on your desk before I went looking into the merge full of bad things teenage girls will do and how to make sure they don't happen. If you even bothered to look at the binder, 'How to Stop a Teenage Girl From Leaving Campus in Middle of the Night' is at the top," Caroline shouted through the phone while massaging her temples. 

"When I last saw her at the game, she seemed fine. How was I supposed to know that was code for I'm going to sneak out?"

"You never should have left the school. I should have never left the school. What were we thinking, letting our daughters try and take on the world?"

"This is my fault. I should have noticed something was up with Josie at the game."

"It's not just your fault. It's mine too. I am gone all the time and—"

"Care, the merge is important. We need a solution. The two of us just need to be better."

No one spoke for a while until Caroline said, "Listen, I was planning on surprising the girls by coming down to the school tomorrow. I am only a few hours away. I can make it one if I really push it. I need you to wake Lizzie up and have her do a locator spell and find Josie. I want to be the one to talk to her."

Alaric agreed and then hung up. He never asked why Caroline felt like she should be the one to talk to Josie even though he was closer, and for that, Caroline was grateful. 

She couldn't explain it, really. She just felt this need to be the first one to see her daughter and talk to her. 

It has been an hour or so since Maya had convinced Josie to dance. Since then, Josie has lost count of how many cups she has had, and her feet are probably covered in bloody blisters from all the dancing. Yet, Josie Saltzman has never felt so blissfully happy. That whole in her chest that is usually overflowing with emotions she can't control is gone. 

Or maybe she forgot about it. Who knows, and more importantly, who cares because Josie certainly does not. 

Suddenly, neon purple, blue, green, and pink lights fly across the room, and Maya jumps in beside her. 

"Maya, where did these come from?"

"Oh, you know, around," she says, winking at someone across the kitchen, "You having fun yet?"

"Of course," Josie says, laughing, "who wouldn't be?"

"Come on," Maya says, grabbing her arm, "I know something that we can do that is even better!"

Maya leads them towards a table where she hops up, "Come up here," Josie looks hesitant for a moment, "I promise it's fun."

Josie thinks, why not?

Josie moves her foot to the chair, using it as a stool, but before she can get herself onto the table, she hears, "Police!"

"Police?" she echoes. Teenagers start running out in any and all directions. 

She hears someone curse besides her, "My mom is home early," says Maya, "She always turns on the lights when she knows I'm having a party. She is going to kill me when she comes inside. Listen, Jo, you really need to leave, or my mom will call your parents, but it was nice meeting you!" 

"You too," she starts to say, but Maya is already gone.

And in her place stands the one woman that makes her heart stop. Josie looks at the ground. 

"We're leaving right now!"

Her mother. 

Josie's eyes drift from her mother to the window because every time she looks at her mom, a new wave a shame crashes over her. She has never seen her mom so anger. 

Sure, she and Lizzie have done their fair share of misdeeds, but nothing where she was this mad. 

They have been driving for a while. Josie noticed a while ago that they passed the town borders, but she did not dare comment, not wanting to enrage her mother further, but Josie finally speaks up when curiosity gets the best of her. 

"Where are we going exactly? Because we aren't going back to school, we left Mystic Falls a while ago."

Caroline says, "We are going back to my hotel."

Before she can stop herself, Josie asks, "Why aren't we going back to the school?"

"Because we need to talk, this behavior is not ok. And I know you, I know my daughter and this much more than a teenager just wanting to go to a party."

Josie doesn't say a word for the rest of the ride. 

Caroline strides into the hotel room with Josie staggering behind her. Josie is trying to fight the vomit crawling up her throat, but she doesn't know how much longer she can last. 

Her eyes land on a trash can, and she immediately makes a run for it. Caroline rushes up behind her and pulls the hair away from her face. 

Caroline tells Josie to stay there, and she will get something to help her with the hangover. Josie cannot even nod. 

She hears her mom make weird noises in the kitchen and cut strange things blending them together. 

Finally, after a while, Caroline returns with a brown liquid in a cup, holding it out so Josie can take it. 

Josie looks at the cup, disgusted. Glancing back at Caroline, she raises her eyebrows as if she were asking, are you serious. 

"Drink it," Caroline orders, "You'll feel better if you do."

Josie takes the cup and slowly lifts the drink to her lips. It tastes disgusting, but the feeling of relief is instantaneous. 

Her jaw drops in an 'o' shape from surprise, "Better?" Caroline asks, smiling. 

Josie nodded and continues to slip the drink until there is nothing left. Caroline tucks a piece of hair behind Josie's ear, and suddenly her face hardens. 

"What were you thinking?"

The question isn't asked angrily. Josie wishes it was. Instead, the question is asked in a disappointing way, making Josie think that Caroline is even more upset than she originally thought.

Josie only replies with, "I wasn't thinking."

"You're right, you weren't, but my question is why."

Josie was going to answer with school has been stressful, but the thought of lying to her mom is almost more painful than telling the truth. So, instead, Josie says nothing. 

Caroline places her hands on Josie's arms and looks directly into her eyes when she says, "You can say nothing, and I will look at this as a teenager feeling rebellious and decided to sneak out, and ground you for a few weeks. Or you can talk to me because I think this is much more than you going through a rebel phase," Caroline pauses for a few moments, "You know it does feel better talking about it."

Josie bites her lip. The thought of talking scares her. She has been holding the feelings in for so long. What if letting them out even a bit causes her to explode. But even if she explodes, wouldn't it be worth it to feel even a little sense of relief?

Josie does not consciously make a decision only finds herself talking, "Sometimes it feels like you guys forget about me. We spend so much time with Lizzie trying to make her feel better, but what about me? I'm always so angry, and I don't know how to control it. Sometimes I get so jealous of not just Lizzie but of the other girls that look at Landon, and I don't know why I feel this way and I don't—I don't know why—and I can't control it, and I don't know what to do—and I just can't anymore I can't—I don't want to die, but I can't deal with the emotions Mom. I just can't and—and—"

Josie's words start to slur together, and sobs start coming from her throat, and she doesn't have enough energy to stop them. Caroline seeing Josie like that grabs her pulls in, crushing Josie to her chest. 

"Hey," Caroline said softly, "Hey, it's ok. You're ok. I promise things will get better, and trust me, everyone gets jealous, and we all get angry, but I promise it gets better. It may not feel like that right now, but it will. I know it isn't the same thing," Caroline pulled Josie back to look into her eyes, "but when my mom died, I turned off my humanity. I thought I couldn't handle the emotional pain. I did terrible things. Things that I regret to this day. We all do bad things, Josie, because the truth is no one is perfect.

But we learn from our mistakes, and do you want to know what I learned? I learned that as much as you want to run away from your problems and pretend they don't exist, you can't do that. You need to tough it out, and things will get better."

Both of them had tears spilling from their eyes now, "Also, we could never forget about you. Josie, I love you. I love you more than I ever thought possible. When I was pregnant, I thought that I could give the two of you to your dad and be ok. I thought that I wouldn't love you guys any more than a fun aunt, but when you and Lizzie were born, and I looked into your guys' eyes, and I knew in my heart that would be impossible. Because at that very moment, I loved you both more than anything. I am sorry that you felt like we forgot about you. Your dad and I will do better, ok? I promise." 

"But mom, what about now? How do I deal with the darkness? Because I can't—I can't. . . do this. I can't feel this anymore."

"As much as I wish I could give you a simple solution, I can't, but something that could and most likely would help would be talking—letting it out because keeping it bottled in doesn't help. And not doing black magic would help, and definitely is not ok, but we talk about it later. 

I know that it sucks right now, and things are really hard. But you, Josie, "Caroline moves her hands to cup Josie's face, "you are strong. You can accomplish anything you put your mind to. I love you, never forget that."

Josie did not say anything after that but didn't make a move to leave the embrace. The tears had stopped flowing from each of the women, but they just stayed there, clinging on to one another. 

At some point, both of them drifted into a dreamless sleep. When they awoke, the light was streaming in through the windows. Josie looked up at her mom and said, "I should probably get to school, right?"

Caroline smirked, "Well, you could do that, or you could shower off all that punk, and we could binge cheesy romcoms for the rest of the day. Because I don't know about you, but I am pretty sure the school will be fine without us for a day."

Josie smiled, "That sounds fun."

**Author's Note:**

> A couple of notes about the story:
> 
> I TAKE PROMPTS! I would love to hear about what you guys want to read. 
> 
> I have no updating schedule. I will update when I feel inspired or when I have the time. 
> 
> The one-shots are not connected whatsoever unless they are part 1s and part 2s.


End file.
